Can learning from the past help to predict the future in the environmental impact assessment on reindeer husbandry?

Transitions in herd management of semi-domesticated reindeer in northern Finland. 45

In northern Finland, reindeer-herd management has experienced two major transitions: extensification of intensive herding, and development of supplementary/corral feeding in winter. The transistions were studied in six herding associations in different parts of the Finnish reindeer management area. It was suggested that intensive herding turns into more extensive forms as the reasons for intensive herding (predation, reindeer disappearing to foreign areas, protection of agricultural fields) gradually ceased to exist. The results of the study, based on interviews of elderly reindeer herders, were variable. In the three southern areas intensive herding changed to the free ranging system at th…

Consequences of forest landscape changes on the availability of winter pastures for reindeer (Rangifer tarandus tarandus) from 1953 to 2003 in Kuusamo, northeast Finland